Tsukiso Saru Kono Kissu
by KlosedDoor
Summary: All Naruto Uzumaki had to do was guard an internment camp. It would've been an easy job, but then a certain Uchiha had to show up and make Naruto's life take the very turn he's been trying to avoid. SasuNaru. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto because all the pieces of K. Masashi's soul were bought off of Amazon by the time I got around to wanting one. ::pouts:: **

**Warning: This fic contains BL / Yaoi / Shounen-ai / Slash. Don't like, don't read. Please click the button coloured the most beautiful shade of lime green to return to your home planet, where the environment is much more comfortable for you. Flames for the boyxboy content will be cheerfully put aside to rot in a secluded corner. People with a healthy obsession with boys may continue without any mental or bodily harm!**

**Author's note: Hi, everyone! This is my first Naruto chapter fic. This takes place back during World War II. Anyone who sees any mistakes in the facts, or discovers tidbits of information that have been left out is welcome to help me out in this long and tedious journey of fanfiction. ::bows clumsily:: **

**If you can help me out in any way, or if you just have a comment, please leave a review about what you thought and whatnot. ::looks down at feet:: That would be great, thank you!**

**A big thank you to FastForward for taking the time out of her busy life to BETA this for me::glomp::**

**The title means something like 'this kiss makes me long for it' in Japanese.**

**Enjoy!**

**Tsukiso Saru Kono Kissu**

by kloseddoor

"_We have waited for hours upon hours _

_Holding our breath_

_I have a feeling that we affect the bullets _

_Our time for war has come."_

_- _**Back After Dawn****"Dragging Dead Weight"**

**

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****Chapter 1:**

**Tanforan Internment Camp**

**California**

**May 20, 1942**

Cerulean eyes watched as family after family and person after person filed into the confinement they would call home for years. They were hard to tell apart from one another. Most were short, had black hair, and had thick accented English. A particular few stood out with their height or coloured hair, or nearly flawless English. He observed as each of them were handed tags and branded by a long number rather than a name. It was all very wickedly satisfying.

After all, they were the ones that bombed Pearl Harbor back in April. America was being avenged.

Private Naruto Uzumaki yawned, stretching his arms. The afternoon heat coming through the guard tower's open window was making him sleepy. Watching all the Japanese fill the camp was about as exciting as watching corn grow in the abandoned field nearby. Cradling his gun in his lap, he cupped his chin in his hand and eyed each and every prisoner suspiciously as they got past security. A large man, possibly a former sumo wrestler, plundered across the dirt, raising dust behind him. A small woman trailed after him, holding a baby to her breast, looked lost and anguished. They would be neighbors.

There was a small child pulling grass from the cracked, dry ground in front of a horse stall apartment to hand to his mother as a green bouquet of flowers. She accepted it gratefully, smiling and pulling the boy gently into their dirty, smelly residence. Flowers didn't grow in camps like this. The entire ground had been hastily tarred over before the arrival of the interns. Not even one petal or leaf floated about in the still air. For a vague second, Naruto felt bad for the whole lot of them. Then, he didn't feel anything at all.

About a thousand meters across the camp was another gray brick tower, currently being occupied by Kiba and Shino. Both of them were quick to anger, but Shino didn't show it as much as Kiba did. Naruto was sure they were either brimming with hatred or completely bored, like he was right now. He thought about ditching his current job to go visit them.

His walkie-talkie crackled as General Jiraiya Sannin on ground level muttered a word of advice: "Don't do anything stupid, kid."

"Yes sir." Sticking out his tongue to no one in particular, Naruto sighed. His General was always two steps ahead of him, even with his back turned and punching holes in tag board tickets. It was a little unsettling to know someone knew his every move.

The wooden door to the staircase creaked open. Startled, Naruto spun around, aiming his gun with frightening accuracy toward the intruder's heart with his finger clasped on the trigger. The rifle tip poked the green padding of a vest. A bag of chips fell to the floor with a plastic crinkling sound.

"Don't shoot! I'm innocent." That particular voice could only belong to Chouji Akimichi. With his red hair and big-boned structure, he was one of the nicest, most forgiving soldiers in the whole army. Not to mention one of the biggest and the scariest when he was angry. With his beefy arms raised high in the air, his small eyes were opened to their widest extent in his fear.

"Sorry, man." Chortling, Naruto lowered his weapon.

He grabbed Chouji's chips from the floor, handing the fallen bag to his friend. Chouji took it back, stuffing another handful into his face as a reward for not shitting his pants when Naruto aimed the gun at his heart. Pulling up a chair from a dark corner of the small room, the blonde soldier invited him to sit. The red-haired man gladly accepted the offer, the chair squeaking in slight protest as he sat down.

Naruto did not fill up the seat next to Chouji. Instead, he went and sat on the sill of the window, the cold brick touching his back. Glancing down at the procession of hung heads, he considered how many of them he would have to shoot, and how many of them would actually make it over the camp's barbed wire gates.

"Chouji, do you think I'll actually ever kill any of them?" Naruto asked, turning his head back around.

"Not if they don't get further than the line they're instructed to stay behind." Chouji replied between crunches, shrugging, and digging further into the bag of chips. Weary of the plain reply, Naruto looked back upon the dry ground.

The long line that had appeared in front of the camp gates at dawn was considerably shorter now that noon was approaching. General Jiraiya wrote off one more tag before excusing himself from the table to go take a lunch break. The lieutenant next to him nodded, picking up his pen to start on another ticket. Naruto caught his General's beckoning glance.

"I'm going to get lunch now. Mind the tower while I'm gone!" Jumping off the window, Naruto dropped the rifle on the chair next to Chouji. Chouji muttered a retort of compliance with his mouth full of chewed chips that Naruto chose to ignore for the sake of his appetite.

He made to sure throw on his heavy army jacket while running down the stairs. Sprinting out the door at the bottom of the staircase like a hyperactive animal, Naruto let the metal door slam shut with a deafening _bang _behind him as he ran over to his elder. He saluted Jiraiya with a firm hello, who saluted back. But the formality between the two quickly shattered when the powerful Sannin chuckled and rubbed the golden mop of hair roughly.

"How was guard tower duty? Exciting?"

"You know that corn field over there by the river? They grew an entire two millimeters while I was up there." Naruto cheered with fake enthusiasm.

"I told you that you needed good entertainment, but you still didn't ask for a copy of Icha Icha, so I brought one along with me! Here ya go! Don't forget to thank me!" Jiraiya pulled the proud orange book from his pocket and held it out for Naruto to take, who looked more than repulsed by just the cover. Frowning confusedly, Jiraiya looked at it to make sure nothing was horribly wrong with it. "What? Does a man chasing after his true love disgust you?"

It wasn't that. Naruto was petrified of the perverse contents inside.

His former squadron leader, the infamous White Fang's son, had been a huge fan of the series, and continually read it without fail, on or off the battlefield. The commands during combat sounded perverted: "_Harder_…at eleven o'clock" or "_Big _enemy with machine gun at the top of the mountain!" Ceasefire calls were more like squeals of joy as the main character deflowered the girl he had the hots for in complete graphic detail.

"Still not interested. Keep it." Naruto shook his head, pushing it back into Jiraiya's possession. "I'm sure Kakashi would accept your gift with more unbounded love than I would ever give you in my life."

"Hatake's not here. I sent him overseas a while ago to Europe. The Nazis are completely out of control there, especially in France." A more serious expression clouded Jiraiya's face. Naruto shook his head sadly in agreement. The blonde himself was Jewish and was, quite frankly, completely terrified of Hitler's supporters and the rest of the Triumvirate countries. He wondered if any of the Japanese surrounding him would attempt to kill him.

Naruto sure hoped not.

"Can we go get something to eat now? I really want ramen!" Blue eyes lit up at the thought of his favourite food.

"Being a soldier is much tougher than not getting ramen, so don't give me that look when I say no." Jiraiya prodded Naruto's tanned forehead with a disapproving look. Sighing, Naruto immediately forced a happier mask onto his face.

"Better?"

"If you can keep it."

Pouting, the blonde followed the seasoned veteran into the mess hall, where a cook was stirring gruel. The tannish, lumpy mixture looked like an inedible version of rotting barley and vomit all thrown together in a bubbling mess. Naruto could feel his stomach growing queasy. Jiraiya next to him was turning a shade that matched his army jacket, but swallowed hard to keep his breakfast down.

"On second thought…we could always turn back and pretend we were never here." Naruto commented, jerking his head back towards the door they came in through.

Before Jiraiya could reply, there was a great _BOOM_ as said door was blown down in a gargantuan puff of smoke. Fully suited up in skintight green latex was the leader of squadron five, the feared Maito Gai!

"All entities of divine youth!!! Let us feast upon what the gods have decided to bless us with!!! What is in that pot?!" The green beast struck a pose, grinning blindingly, motioning towards the black cauldron.

"I believe it is a mixture of rotting goods and spoiled oatmeal!!" Gai's favourite pupil and most faithful underling, Rock Lee, appeared in a puff of smoke next to him. With his bowl cut and caterpillar eyebrows glued to his head, Lee struck the same horrifying pose as his teacher.

Naruto stared at them dumbfounded. While there was nothing written on his face except for speechlessness, the little voice in the back of his head began to wail like a banshee. The same thing was happening to Jiraiya, who stood with a cocked eyebrow as his shoulder angels began to hit decibels too high to be humane.

_Oh **hell**__no._

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* * *

**With every step, a little brown cloud appeared behind the heel from his boot. With every breath, he became thirstier. With every blink of an eye, he felt like he was going to topple over and die right there from dehydration. 

Rubbing his temples with his one free hand, Uchiha Sasuke trudged through the secluded, grimy camp of Tanforan, which used to serve as stalls for racehorses before the war started. This was no place for anything to prosper besides plague-carrying field mice and bubbling tar pits. The humid heat was making the overstuffed duffel bag he was carrying weigh at least twice the actual weight. His arm ached.

Pulling on the tag around his neck, Sasuke looked down at the inked scrawl for his apartment number. Underneath his birth date, 'Barrack 16, Apartment 30' sat, innocently staring back at him with an evil smirk. He would be staying in the sixteenth barrack, thirtieth goddamned horse stall for the next decade.

_The future looks impossibly bright,_ he thought sarcastically.

Barrack 16 wasn't even a barrack. It was in the back of the camp, secluded from the rest, and obviously had been hastily built with whatever wood could be scoured in the general vicinity. Sasuke glared at the building, scanning the doors for his own apartment.

Reaching his destination and loathing every aspect of the decomposing wood constructing the building, Sasuke shouldered the door. If he kicked it, it was almost certain to fall off its hinges.

The sanctuary of the uninviting home hardly was any different from walking outside. The heat was even more unbearable inside because of the stench of horse muck. The muck was supposedly already cleaned out but from the smell, Sasuke was skeptical about it being gone. Sunlight and grass snuck their way through the cracks of the planks. Stepping on the weeds, Sasuke dropped his bag on the floor, absently going over the list of things he had packed.

Had a bed been on the list? Because there wasn't a damned speck of anything in the whole room. Reluctantly, Sasuke sat down on the hot wood and unzipped his duffel bag to empty its seemingly rich contents.

_Toiletries…clothes…food…pictures…_ Obsidian eyes regarded the black and white photos of his family with a dull air before returning them to their original places. He could reminisce later.

Right now, he had to figure out what he was going to sleep on. Nearly completely buried in his luggage, Sasuke finally pulled his head out after five minutes under and gave up. There was no way an Uchiha with an IQ of 140 could forget to pack something to sleep on, but he had.

_Delightful. _The army had forgotten to place a cot in his horse stall.Now he would have to sleep on the burning firewood and suffer from severe joint and back pain. His optimism for life in Tanforan was ever growing.

Outside, little children were laughing, playing tag in the dead plateau. Women chatted over sewing or folding clothes while the men sat around, complaining about the current political structures over a game of cards. Sasuke wondered in which group he would belong. There didn't seem to be many people his age in the camp. He could imagine that he would have to brood in the darkest corner of the room for the next few years and mutter about the poor social organization of the world.

The air was filled faintly with the sound of laughter and small talk. Sasuke didn't mind it too much. It sort of reminded him of how the big city always was. There was always noise, day or night, and people always seemed to know each other on the streets. In the parks, the children always laughed like this, their mirth scattering through the heavy air like silver bells.

A sudden shout broke the calm mood.

"Naruto!! Get back here right now!! Dammit!!" Sasuke recognized the voice a bit. It was the General who had written out his dog tag at the gate. With his large tail of white hair and a fair share of warts on his nose, the man had reminded him of evil wizards portrayed in fairytale books.

A piercing shriek blew through the atmosphere afterwards.

_Did one of the soldiers go mad?_ Oddly curious, Sasuke stepped through the open door to speculate with the rest of the Japanese population as to what was happening. There were murmurs of disappointment. Many of the mothers were holding their hands up to their lips, whispering and shaking their heads.

A golden blur whipped past Sasuke's shoulder.

"Wh…?"

"Shhhhh."

There was blonde boy, no older than fifteen by the looks of it, cowering behind the rotting wood wall. Putting a finger to his full pink lips, the boy motioned for Sasuke to keep quiet. Retreating back into his musty apartment, Sasuke sighed, shutting the door and rejoining his duffel bag on the floor. He glanced over his shoulder. The boy was still there, peeking through a rather large split in the wooden planks of his wall.

Feeling a gaze boring through his back, the blonde soldier turned and caught Sasuke's dark gaze. Smiling awkwardly, he went back to his lookout before turning around in a few minutes, slumping to the floor with a sigh of relief. Black met blue again.

"I'm Naruto! Sorry for barging in but the cafeteria grub was really making me dizzy so I just had to get out of there!" The blonde scratched the back of his head, laughing. Sasuke dropped his stare back to the floor, his fingers folding the peeling corner of a wrinkled old photograph back and forth monotonously. Confused with the silence he was greeted with, Naruto laughed again. "So what's your name?"

Sasuke looked up suspiciously. "Why? So if there's any trouble, you'll have my name in mind?"

To be honest, Naruto hadn't expected a reply other than a confused look, but he got one. And in English too! This guy must've been one of those rich, uptight business people!

"Your English is perfect! That's awesome!" When all Naruto got in reply was a cold glare, he stood up, muttering audibly with a frown. "Jeez, what crawled up your ass? Haven't you ever heard of proper introductions? God, what'd I do?"

"You locked me in here. Give me one reason I shouldn't kick you outside right now, you stupid republican…" Sasuke's voice trailed off when he felt a warm presence behind him.

Pointing at the picture in the Uchiha's hand, Naruto's face split into a big grin: "Is that your family? You all look alike, tall, dark, and stern. Well, except for your mother but…hey! Is that your brother? He looks like your twin, but much older. And what's with the lines under his eyes?"

Sasuke held up the black and white snapshot to eye-level. "Do I really look that much like him?" Naruto nodded vigorously. An angry expression was suddenly stamped into the raven-haired man's pale skin. He gripped the paper tighter in his hand, clenching his jaw, and ripped the entire thing into a four halves, letting them flutter to the floor.

The soldier's blue eyes bugged out. "What are you doing?! You shouldn't tear something precious like that so easily! Isn't your family important to you?"

"If they were all here, they'd all be locked up like me anyway." Sasuke snapped, shooting Naruto the ugliest expression his face could make, but even Sasuke's trademark glare couldn't wipe Naruto's opinion clear.

"That's not my fault! I'm just saying that your family is important and you shouldn't treat it like a bunch of scraps." Naruto touched the feathery edges of the torn pieces. "Look, these edges aren't sharp. We could put it back together if we got some tape. Don't be so rash all the time. It'll cost you later."

Sasuke picked the pieces up from the floor and gazed at them with an unexplainable expression in his eyes. It was blended between sorrow and fury. For a moment, Naruto let a small smile grace his lips, thinking that the Japanese boy was taking his advice, but he was sadly mistaken. With another smirk shadowing his face, Sasuke ripped the remains into tiny bits, watching them flutter irrevocably into the cracks of the rotting wood boards.

"Don't act like you know everything. I don't care about them." Glowering at the intruder, Sasuke hoped that he would get the message and get the hell out.

Naruto closed his mouth as quickly as he opened it, pausing for a moment. "That's sort of a cruel statement, don't you think? I told you not to be so rash. It really is going to cost you soon." Sitting down heavily on the squeaking floor, the blonde kicked his legs out in front of him, resting his weight on the palm of his hands. "Didn't you ever get excited when you ran home after school to eat those cookies your mom prepared especially for you? Or when your dad taught you how to ride a bike? You weren't one of those abused kids, were you? I sure hope not. Your parents looked really nice. Your brother did too, in a weird sort of creepy way."

"It's none of your business." Absently tugging at the fabric of his sleeve, Sasuke grimaced. His family was one of those sore sports; a touchy subject. Not that he was abused by his parents or anything. Definitely not.

Naruto went silent when there was some more shouting outside. He turned back and gave Sasuke the brightest beam the Uchiha had seen in his entire life. Somehow, it made Sasuke feel like laughing, but he hid it behind the dark shadows cast on his pale skin. Eyeing the spilled contents of the duffel bag, Naruto stared confusedly at Sasuke's pile of stuff on the floor. There were so many items missing that should've been there.

"Looks like we forgot to put a cot in your room." Pointing out the obvious, all Naruto got in reply was another death glare.

"Thanks for stating the obvious, moron."

Feeling a little bit hurt at the name, Naruto chewed on his chapped lips and continued prodding at the new subject. "I could get my hands on an extra sleeping bag, if you'd like. They really over-exaggerated about the size of this place so we over-packed a bit. There are probably a million unused sleeping bags lying around."

"I told you to leave me alone!" Sasuke roared, his eyes flashing with hatred. Naruto immediately shut up at the sudden outburst, wondering what he had done wrong.

Warm breath made the musty smell of the room even damper and staler. The thought of mold growing between the cracks of the wood crossed both of their minds as they sat in silence, staring nervously at each other. Sasuke's gaze remained unchanged, stone cold, while Naruto fidgeted with the fraying hem of his jacket.

"Naruto!!"

Naruto's head shot up. That was Chouji's voice.. If Chouji was up and about looking for him, then the entire squad must be worried sick about him. Through the thin walls, Sasuke's neighbors were chattering, gossiping no doubt, about what was going on. After all, a soldier was expected to be of high class, not spastic and prone to acting in the heat of the moment.

"Uzumaki!!"

"Privaaaaaaaaaaaaaate!!"

Dark eyes widened with shock. "Uzumaki? That's Japanese…"

"Your eyes went big! Is that your shocked expression? I knew you had some muscles in your face." Naruto laughed, completely ignoring Sasuke's new realization.

"Private!! Naruto!! Uzumaki!! Get out here right now!! This is not respectable behavior!!"

"Narutoooo!! General's gonna have your ass on a dinner plate!!"

Chuckling, the blonde stood up, rearranging his clothes, and headed for the door. Before leaving, he turned around, giving Sasuke one more of those irritating flashy smiles. "I'm really in for it this time. Thanks for your hospitality, mister! I'll see you around. Oh! And I'll see that you get something to sleep on. Hard wood is bad for your back, and you don't want to hobble around like an old grandpa when you're only twenty."

"I'm eighteen."

"Only two years difference." The blue-eyed soldier shrugged, pushing open the creaking door. At once, there were whispers, followed by a loud smacking sound as Naruto was physically punished by his friends. Sasuke stood behind the door, watching the scene play out.

"You moron!"

"We ran around for an hour looking for you!"

"There are duties to be done, people to be watched over. You can't just run off when you feel like it!"

An apologetic chuckle came from Naruto. "I'm sorry, guys. It's just that Maito Gai was making the whole cafeteria scene indigestible and I had to get out of there before I lost it."

"Naruto."

A tall, broad man wearing the same uniform as the rest of the soldiers approached the blonde. Instantly, everyone stopped arguing and straightened up their posture, saluting the man with the mane of white hair and the red star upon his chest. This had to be the famous military General, Jiraiya Sannin. Naruto visibly flinched, turning his head to look back at Sasuke's horse stall apartment. The door completely shut.

"Yessir!" Saluting his General, Naruto made sure to throw back his shoulders and tilt his chin upwards.

"Soldiers cannot cause havoc in camps. Neither can you intrude upon an intern's living quarters for no reason or without permission. What will the other citizens living here think of us? You are a part of our reputation." A disappointed look was etched upon General Jiraiya's face. "Your actions cannot and will not be tolerated. There better not be a next time for this, because then I'll have to take severe actions. Naruto, I expected better of you. "

"Sorry, General." Naruto's head hung low with shame.

"On a brighter note, let's return to the cafeteria!" Jiraiya patted Naruto's back, smiling and leading him in the direction of the mess hall. "Spoiled vomit sounds great for dinner, don't you think?"

"General! Don't ruin it for everyone!" Kiba moaned, slapping his forehead in distress.

"We need to eat to get the strength to fight when we're needed on the field nonetheless." Jiraiya shrugged. He motioned towards a reluctant Kiba and Chouji to join him and Naruto for dinner. With a cynical frown, the two followed. There were sounds of protest as Chouji protected his chips from the greedy hands of Kiba, and Naruto couldn't help but laugh at their immaturity. It was so funny seeing two grown-up men fight over chips.

"What's so funny, Naruto?"

Naruto looked up at Jiraiya's puzzled black eyes, laughing again. After a minute of persistent prodding from his curious elder, the blonde gave in and smiled widely with a strange request on the tip of his tongue. "Is there an extra sleeping bag anywhere? I tend to get cold at night."

Inside his new, smelly, humid residence, Sasuke was desperately pulling bits of gray paper out from between the rotting wood boards.

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****Thank you for making it all the way here! Liked it? Good? Bad? Please review! Reviews make my soul feel happy and more motivated to write. Next chapter has some SasuNaru fluff. **

**If I get good feedback for this chapter, I'll continue to write this. If not, I might drop it. **

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**So this is chapter 2. Thanks to all those who reviewed::hugs::**

**If you don't like BL or Yaoi or Shounen-ai, please click that green back button.**

**Disclaimer: I searched up K. Masashi's soul on Google to see if any pieces of it were still lying around and got 13860976 results. So I gave up, and moved onto finding a piece of Naruto or Sasuke or Sai. Unfortunately, I got 237620675398 results for that one...If anyone is kind enough to give me one, I want Naruto's soul for Christmas.**

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It was noisy in the soldier's bunk. Although lights out had been administered an hour ago, the thirty-some Privates talked amongst each other. Some were arguing about the humanity of the imprisonment camps while others were debating over which bed was more comfortable than the other. Truth be told, the thin plush of the sleeping bags offered little comfort from the hard wood floors. Chouji's loud snoring wasn't helping anyone else fall asleep soon, either. 

"God, Chouji, shut up and let me sleep!" An unfortunate Kiba was stuck next to said snoring culprit. Tired and feeling sick from dinner, the brunette had become more volatile than usual, and was very impatient with everybody.

Chouji's response to Kiba's complaints was more snoring. Once the guy was sleeping, he was dead to the world. Naruto watched with impending doom as the muscles rippled irately in Kiba's jaw. Reaching over to pull on Chouji's nightshirt, Naruto helped shake the man awake and warn him of Kiba's precariousness at the moment towards his loud snoring. Being only half awake, Chouji merely nodded back to his noisy sleep.

"I'm gonna kill this fucker…" Muttering more obscenities under his breath, Kiba buried himself under his sleeping bag, hoping to drown out all the racket.

Sighing, Naruto forced himself to roll out of his sleeping bag and stand up. It was obvious no one was going to get much sleep besides Chouji and a few very tolerant others. He made his way through the small foot space between each soldier, making sure not to squash anybody's poor toe or leg in the process. When he reached the door, he felt like he had accomplished something greater than anything he had done in his entire life. But before Naruto could get out into the open, a concerned voice stopped him.

"Where are you going so late at night?"

"Hm? Don't worry about me, Neji. I'm just going to use the bathroom." Naruto looked at the white-eyed man sitting cross-legged on top of the makeshift indigo comforter sleeping bag. Then, with a cocky smile, continued: "I'm not going to be eaten by space monsters like last time. I promise, mother."

"Shut up and go."

He laughed as the door shut behind him.

The wind was much stronger outside than Naruto ever thought it would be. Who knew the desert felt like Antarctica at night? Clutching his own arms to keep some of his body warmth from escaping, Naruto tried to think that he was taking a midnight walk to get his mind off the cold. He had been trained in conditions like these before so he should've been able to withstand it.

"I'm gonna die!" Naruto whined, but still refused to turn back. Of course, the last time he had a training in polar conditions was over a year ago.

There was another familiar grumble nearby. "Where the hell are the bathrooms? A man can't even satisfy his natural needs without running a mile."

"Eh?" Naruto turned to glance at the shadow behind him. "Hey! It's you! The total prick guy!"

"I wouldn't be talking. You're a total moron."

For the first time, Naruto realized that the Japanese man towered over him by at least five inches. Damn. He never noticed at _tall_ a Japanese guy could be. Or maybe it was the man's hair that made him appear taller. Naruto contemplated this for a moment before returning to starting an argument. An insult could not go ignored.

"I'm not a moron! Show some respect for a soldier protecting your life!" Naruto yelled, hands crossed tightly across his chest.

"You called me a prick first." the dark-haired man shot back. Cheeks flushed slightly from the cold and the rest of his skin paled to an almost translucent white, Naruto thought Sasuke looked like one of those porcelain dolls the little girls in his neighborhood always played with.

Embarrassed by his vague defeat, Naruto changed the subject. "Do you know where the bathrooms are? 'Cause I'm really beginning to feel the pressure down _there_."

"There?"

Naruto couldn't tell if he was being made fun of in this situation or not. "Yea. _There_."

"No, I meant I think the bathrooms are over there. What did you think I meant?"

"Nothing." He was glad it was dark, or else his mistake would've been caught red-handed. Flushing at his misinterpretation, the blonde slapped a pout onto his full lips and headed in the direction the other man was pointing at. Indeed, there was a small hut-like outhouse in the distance.

As Naruto relieved himself, Sasuke did the same on the other side of the bathroom. The place stank even though it had not been used for over a day. Thin wood kept the wind out as well as paper would've, and if not for privacy purposes, Naruto was pretty sure that there would've been no walls surrounding the toilet areas. Everything seemed to have been made with thin wood boards, right down to the urinals that the two were using. Tanforan reminded Naruto a lot of the British novels about cities in poverty, small and poor.

Icy water spilled out of the faucets into the sink. Naruto swore he could feel small pieces of ice slide over his fingers as he scrubbed his hands clean with the rough, sand-like soap placed underneath the miniscule mirror. He glanced over at the Japanese man, wondering how he was faring. Looking repulsed at the gritty soap, Naruto could only guess that the intern had come from a rich family.

"It's just soap." Naruto stated.

"The water's too cold." was the immediate reply.

"I bet you're colder than that. You look like your body temperature is at least ten degrees below everyone else's." Without warning, Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hands and dropped them in surprise. "That's pretty _warm_."

"They make a nice fireplace." Sasuke shrugged.

"Did you just attempt a crack at a joke?" Incredulous, Naruto tentatively took Sasuke's hands again and forced them under the running water.

"You're putting out the fire I need."

"It's better than having dirty hands. If I don't wash my hands, I feel like I'm covered in a layer of slime. I bet that's how you feel about it, too." Naruto repented, dodging an accidental spray of water from a leak in the cracked wood. "You sound like you've had everything all your life, complete with maids that clean your house all the time and butlers who serve you to your heart's content. I wish I lived like that."

"I don't really like people." The moment the blonde let go, the raven-haired man recoiled quickly from the grasp, shaking the water off.

"I'd say! You wouldn't even tell me your name because you thought I'd tattle on you for something that never happened. Like I said before, you're a prick." Wiping his hands on his plaid pajama pants, Naruto followed the other man out of the bathroom back into the howling cold.

"Like I said, you're a moron." Cocking an eyebrow haughtily, he held the door open for the blonde.

"Don't copy my lines! Bastard."

"Prick was better."

"Is your name Prick?" Naruto was eager to squeeze an answer out of the stoic man.

"No, and I'm not telling for sufficient reasons you already know."

"C'mon,"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Not even with a cherry on top?

"Don't like cherries."

"Fine. Be that way. Your mother obviously didn't teach you much about good manners." Naruto huffed, eying Sasuke. "Aren't you cold? You're not even shivering in the least."

"It's not cold. Why? You're cold?" Tucking his hands into the pockets of his cloak, Sasuke smirked at the blonde. In thin pajamas, it was evidently going to be cold. Besides, didn't he know that this wasn't a desert, but rather a small seaside place? A soldier should've been taught such before.

"Why is the desert like the North Pole??" Wailing, Naruto hugged himself tighter.

"You're such a wimp."

"Why aren't you cold, too? Are you some sort of alien from outer space?" Swinging his fists randomly around, the blonde scrunched up his face and wound his arms back around in a hug to protect himself from the sudden gust.

Sighing, Sasuke slung his cloak around the soldier's small shoulders. "Payback for the sleeping bag. Give it back when you don't need it anymore."

"Thank you!" A clear, silver bell laugh rang through the empty, dark camp. Sasuke closed his eyes, immersing himself in the natural sound, hoping to burn it permanently into his brain like a song. Naruto's voice sounded like a girl's when he whined, complained, and laughed. It was … cute. The blonde turned, in much higher spirits now that he was warm, and smiled. "Won't you tell me your name so I can thank you properly?"

The words slipped out of the raven's mouth: "Uchiha Sasuke."

"Thank you so much, Sasuke!" Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hands in his own and pulled the Uchiha in to kiss him on the cheek. Confused. Sasuke slapped a hand to his reddening cheek, letting out a noise of surprise. "That's how you say thank you in Japan, I think!"

Quite flustered and trying to keep the heat from rising to his face, Sasuke nearly screamed: "No, it's not."

"Really? Maybe it was in France or something. I'm sorry then! But thank you! Arigato gozaimasu, Uchiha-san? Is that how you say it in Japanese?" The blonde continued to ramble on about his deep thanks.

Sasuke merely thought that Naruto smelled a lot like strawberries and pine.

* * *

**So that's the end. Fluff as promised. ::laughs:: Next chapter will be much longer, I promise! **

**Please review. I will love you infinitely::heart:: **


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Thank you to all those who reviewed! I love you all::tear:: Er...not much else to say other than pay attention to the date of each chapter. Although it may seem like this story is moving sorta fast, it's not. I'm just...not motivated enough to talk about every day of the World War 2 in detail. I'm sorry.

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. But it will be. Christmas is coming up! My brother must've gotten at least a piece of Naruto for me...

Warning: This fic contains Yaoi/ BL/ boyxboy. Leave if you are not interested in such things. Good bye. For those who continue to read this, this fic is un-beta-ed. FastForward left on hiatus to study for her finals...(...so why am I still sitting here, typing this stuff, when I have finals as well?...the mysteries of life...)

**

* * *

****Chapter 3: Inclusion**

**Tanforan Internment Camp, California**

**June 2, 1942**

* * *

"WAKE UP CALL!! GET UP AND GET TO IT!!" 

Three-dozen people groaned in protest, forcing themselves up from their comfortable bedding. It took a few tries to poke a sleep-deprived Kiba and Naruto awake but the entire sleeping quarter managed to fling itself back into its usual morning hustle. ("Help, Kiba! I don't know where I put my uniform!" "You're wearing it, stupid." "Help! I'm wearing my uniform…what?")

Tripping over each other, each soldier managed to make it to the cafeteria, where another cauldron of gruel was being stirred. Naruto could feel his stomach get that sick feeling again while Kiba held his throat and gagged from the strange odor smoking from the pot. Lee, feeling well rested as always, was first in line to get a healthy serving of breakfast oatmeal with something that looked like a glob of mustard on top. As thanks, an eager Lee dropped and gave fifty pushups before running off to eat with Lieutenant Gai.

"I'm sure oatmeal tastes great with mustard." Naruto commented optimistically, ready to be the second victim of breakfast food. He still couldn't really choke solid food down but he could try.

"That yellow stuff is supposed to be honey!" Someone shouted from the other side of the room.

Blushing at his mistake, Naruto stuck out his lip and marched frog style to grab his food from the witch stirring the magic poison. He watched with a dreadful feeling as blobs of degenerated oats plopped into the white bowl. In fact, he was so lost in his own depressing thoughts that he didn't hear the question he was being asked.

"Sir?"

Naruto's head snapped back. "Huh?"

"Do you want some honey?" The person stirring the oatmeal was actually a pretty girl donned in white cafeteria lady clothing. With a genuine smile, she held up the bottle as a visual.

"Oh! Yes, thank you." Embarrassed for the second time in five minutes, he stared down at his feet. _She kinda seems like Sasuke's type! She's so happy all the time and Sasuke's never happy._

"It must be hard to wake up after a hard day of work! You soldiers have it tough." The girl's mint-green eyes held a sympathetic look as she poured the honey in a zigzag design across the top of the gruel. "I mean, you guys have to watch over the entire camp 24/7, find time to eat, and sleep. How do you ever find the time to relax?"

"That's what we get for joining the army!" Naruto replied cheerfully, graciously accepting the bowl from her hands. "You don't have it so great either. I mean, you're stirring that _stuff_ and giving it to all of us."

"I have it better than most of the women in the camp though. They have to sew clothing and bandages and I'm no good at sitting still for hours with a piece of cloth on my lap. All I have to do is help cook." The girl smiled, twisting a lock of strawberry coloured hair around her finger and fidgeting slightly. "But I guess, the stuff we're given to cook isn't exactly gourmet. You ran out of here pretty quick that one day!"

Turning a deep shade of crimson, the blonde puffed up both cheeks in a pout and looked away. It wasn't his fault Gai and Lee scared the living hell out of him. The creepy way the food bubbled wasn't his fault either. He had good reason for running away! The girl began to giggle at how the soldier was beginning to represent a tomato.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset." The girl put down the large, metal spoon to hold out a hand. "I'm Haruno Sakura!"

Naruto smiled, taking her hand. This was more like it! Compared to the evil death glare Sasuke had given him yesterday, this was a nice change of pace. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Nice ta meetcha!"

Sakura looked confused.

"Ehh? Doesn't Uzumaki mean you're Japanese? How come you're not locked in here with the rest of us?!" She exclaimed, furrowing her eyebrows together. "Even if you're not fully Japanese, anyone who is over one eighteenth Japanese was taken as a threat to the country. I'm only a sixth Japanese!"

Pondering this, Naruto said the first thing that came to mind. "Well, I don't even look Japanese! I'm a natural blonde!" Fingering his golden hair, he chewed his lip and thought some more about it. "And technically, I am stuck here at Tanforan with you all so I'm kinda confined. Plus the government needs more soldiers for the war than they can get their hands on so if they kicked out all the Japanese soldiers, they'd be in big trouble. Well, what is there to say? War sucks."

Sakura nodded wholeheartedly in agreement. Before Naruto could continue their conversation, Kiba jumped between the two of them, an innocent look on his face.

"Who's the cute girl, Uzumaki? You haven't been keeping a secret sweetheart from us, have you?"

"What? No! I just met her!"

"Lookit how red you just turned! Liar." Wrapping his arm around Naruto's neck, Kiba grinned and gave a kicking Naruto the most painful noogie of his life while looking at Sakura. "I saw you here last night at dinner! What's yer name?"

"It's Sakura." She smiled hesitantly, glancing worriedly down at Naruto.

Kiba followed her gaze. "Don't worry about Uzumaki. He'll be fine. I always do this to him! See?" To prove his point, Naruto's poor head suffered some more.

"Excuse me but there's a whole line waiting behind you." Sakura pointed at the long, arduous line that had suddenly formed down the middle of the cafeteria. ("Woah…what a babe!" "You think she's already got a boyfriend?" "Obviously! Didn't you see the way Uzumaki was flirting with her?" "I wasn't flirting! Dammit!")

Grabbing his bowl, Naruto stomped away childishly. He passed by Rock Lee, whose theories on life had changed from a potent love for life to a potent love for Sakura. The blonde watched as pink hearts danced their way towards Sakura and almost pitied the girl, who had taken to dodging every single one while skillfully still serving the other thirty-four people. General Jiraiya had risen earlier than everyone else and was already sitting at one of the tables, waiting patiently for anyone who would join him.

"Good morning, Ero-sennin!!"

"Would you stop calling me that? It's giving me a bad reputation." Jiriaya frowned slightly but Naruto could tell that Naruto wasn't going to take the excuse.

"Ero-sennin describes you just fine. You use all your spare time to write those perverted little books. General seems like too much of a compliment, if you ask me." Still pissed off at Kiba and company from before, Naruto sat down heavily next to his white-maned elder.

"So who was that girl you were flirting with?" Looking over shoulder, Jiraiya glanced at the pink-haired girl, whose head just touched the floor to avoid a floating heart. "She's got some skills."

"I wasn't flirting with her!" Naruto slammed his hands down on the table. The oatmeal barely saved itself from tipping over but somehow managed to rebalance from the quake. With a nasty glare, the blonde stuck a spoonful of bland oatmeal into his mouth.

Jiraiya was still eyeing him teasingly.

"What?! Stop that! Your eyes are freaking me out!" Banging his hands on the table over and over again, Naruto wailed until he discovered something else to focus on. Topic of focus was now Kiba, who was missing from his usual spot at the table even though breakfast was nearly over. Staring over Jiraiya's cloud of white hair, he scanned the entire place until he found Kiba, shamelessly flirting with Sakura.

"So, you from around here?" Oatmeal now ignored, Kiba leaned against the edge of the giant pot to see her face better.

"I'm from Seattle. My family owned a coffee shoppe there and once I get out, I'm heading straight back to it!" Sakura happily chirped. As she stuck the giant spoon back into the gargantuan pot, she looked back up at Kiba. "So where are you from?"

"San Fran! Driving's best there! All those up hills and speeding down hills! Hell yea!" Kiba all but screamed.

"Hey, Hinata!" Shouting over her shoulder, Sakura got a small girl to emerge from the kitchen. "Aren't you from there?"

"From where?" The girl stopped a few meters away from them, timidly toying with her fingers. She had the strangest combination of indigo hair and white eyes. Kiba could feel the heat rising to his cheeks. She was so cute in that plaid apron (obviously brought from home since no other girl had one) and matching lavender outfit underneath.

Sakura laughed, tugging on Hinata's arm to pull her away from the wall she was hiding behind. "San Francisco, dummy! Where else have you lived?" Hinata turned a billion shades of scarlet from embarrassment, avoiding both Sakura and Kiba's gaze.

From where he was sitting, Naruto could only feel insanely jealous. Not only was his best friend ignoring him but he was also trying to hook up with two of the kitchen girls! That was despicable! It was not of orderly conduct! He turned to complain to Jiraiya, only to find the General chuckling behind his hands.

_So much for following the rules._

"Although it's expected of a soldier to restrain his emotions, I can let it slide this time." Jiraiya pushed on Naruto's back in the direction of Sakura and Kiba. "Now, you can't let your best friend have your new girlfriend already. Go win her back!"

Slapping the hand away angrily, Naruto shouted: "Sakura's not my girlfriend!" He stomped away from the table, making sure to punch Kiba in the back as hard as he could on his way out.

Hinata saw the blonde and promptly turned her head away before she could pass out.

* * *

On the way to who-knows-where, Naruto felt something tugging on his pant leg. At first, he thought it was caught on a tree branch but then he realized there was no such thing as trees here. He looked down and saw a little girl pulling at clothing. When he caught her warm chocolate gaze, she laughed, holding her arms out to him. 

"Nii-chan!"

"Huh?"

The blonde scratched his head in confusion, kneeling down on one knee to look at her face. Her long brown hair was combed back into pigtails on the top of her head. They swung from side to side as she wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hug. Hesitantly, he stood up, hoisting her onto one of his arms and quietly listened to her mindless babbling.

"Where are your parents?" Naruto asked, looking around for any mother or father searching for a child. There didn't seem to be any. It was still early after all and no one besides the soldiers were really up.

"Ne, nii-chan? Chichiue? Okaa-san?" She waved her hands in a slashing motion, shaking her head. "They gone. Chichiue went bye bye, just like okaa-san. Green took them away."

"Green?" Naruto didn't get it.

"Green! Like this." The girl tugged at the collar of his jacket. Tears began to well up in her eyes and Naruto half-panicked at her sudden wail. "Green took nii-chan time ago! Will nii-chan go bye bye too?"

"Hey, it's okay! I'm sure your parents are fine! The government just probably wanted to look deeper into their records or something. They'll be back! Don't cry! It'll be alright! Don't cry!" That didn't help since she just started crying harder. The blonde clutched the girl tighter and hoped that no one would accuse him of child abuse. _What to do? What to do? I don't know what to do!! Gah!_

Between her hiccups and sobs, the brunette child wailed: "What about nii-chan? Is he going bye bye soon too?"

At that exact moment, Sakura had run out from the kitchen to see what the noise was all about. Naruto could only see her as his savior from the Heavens, complete with the white wings and halo etched above her neatly combed hair.

"A love child!?!"

Sakura had been followed by the one and only Kiba.

"Ehhh?!"

"Tenten!!" There was a squeal of joy from Sakura as she took the weight off of Naruto's arms. "I told you to stay inside and not go out! Look! You got your shoes all dirty and I just shined them! God…why don't you ever listen?"

"Don't wanna." Tenten stuck out her lip and crossed her arms. "Nii-chan here!"

Sakura looked at the blonde, shaking her head. "That's not your brother. Your brother's dead. He died on the battlefield. You remember, don't you?"

"Died?" Tenten stared wide-eyed at the pink-haired girl's comment as if she had never heard of her brother's death before. Translucent tears slipped down her cheeks.

Naruto winced. _Way not to be blunt._

**

* * *

**A giant jigsaw puzzle was laid out in front of Sasuke. He had stayed up all night trying to fix the photo he had ripped up yesterday. The moron had been right after all. He really was regretting what he'd done. Sasuke sighed, leaning back on his haunches and touched a piece of someone's eye. He couldn't tell if it was his or his older brother's. 

That was the other thing Naruto had been right about. Despite his own persistent refusal to accept the truth, it was true. He really did look like Itachi.

_So if I kill him, does that mean I'm killing myself? _Sasuke sighed, rubbing his forehead with his hand, eying another piece of photo paper wearily. He was tired and his head was beginning to throb.

The frayed strap of his Rolex watch was beginning to chafe at his wrist, reminding him of the old scars that were hidden beneath the black. He sighed again, undoing the strap and carelessly letting it drop to the floor. What good was an expensive watch going to do him now anyways? The best thing that could come out of it was some desperate, former criminal guy jumping him for it and Sasuke knew for a fact that he didn't want to get jumped.

Besides, if someone wanted his watch, Sasuke would have no problem handing the one thousand dollar thing over.

Giving up on ever putting the old picture back together, he kicked back the top of the sleeping bag open. It had been doing nothing but sitting uselessly by the wall for the last twenty-four hours. Now it was being put to good use.

And by good use, Sasuke meant punching it and the floor around it until his knuckles bled.

"Fuck!"

"I'll kill you!"

"I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!"

"Hate what?"

The Uchiha's head snapped up. There, standing in his doorway, was no other than the blonde moron from yesterday. Blue eyes regarded the gray pieces on the floor for a moment before looking back at the conflicted man in front of him. Sasuke hated the expression Naruto had on his face. A look mixed with disdain and disappointment.

"I told you not to do that." Kicking the door shut behind him, the soldier walked over to ripped photo and shook his head. "If you kept it in just four pieces, we could've taped it back together."

"Shut up! It's none of your business. Who told you to barge in here in the first place!?" Sasuke roared, clenching his fists. He had to bite back on his teeth to keep from crying out as the splinters stuck between his knuckles took a stab at his nerves.

"Hey, you're bleeding."

Ignoring the question, Naruto rushed to the older boy's side in an attempt to look at the wound. Sasuke just angrily glared and jerked his hand away. Naruto jumped after it. Soon, he had the blonde hopping all over the place as he kept swinging his arm around so it wouldn't be caught. The steel look of determination was etched over Naruto's face as he lunged for the hand again and again.

"Stop being difficult! Lemme see it! It's not like I'm going to lop it off or something!!" Frustrated, Naruto took his last resort. He sat down in Sasuke's lap and forced his hand down by pounding on the shoulder's tender spot.

Sasuke hissed under his breath. "That's a dirty trick."

"Don't be a sore loser. This is for your own good! No one wants to run around with splinters this big stuck in their hand. Seriously, did you go take the wood, and pierce it through your skin or what? These are fucking huge!" Naruto jumped up, heading for the door. "I'm gonna go get the first aid kid. Don't run away while I'm gone!"

Sasuke just glared, secretly hoping that the blonde wouldn't return. He could pull these out by himself, for God's sake. He didn't need any sympathy, especially not from the army. His father had always told him that to become stronger, he needed to fix his own mistakes by himself.

A rubber ball rolled through the door Naruto had left open and stopped by Sasuke's foot. Jadedly, he glanced at it, then returned to tugging at the largest splinter.

"Hello? Mister?" A boy, dressed in nothing but khaki slacks, peered carefully from behind the door. "Did a ball roll in here by accident?"

Sasuke barely looked up, kicking the intruding object towards the cowering child. The rough edges of the splinter making his hand run red with blood and it hurt, dammit! Unfortunately, even great and powerful Uchihas weren't completely ignorant to pain. Hissing slightly, he glanced back up to see the kid still standing there, staring.

"What?" Sasuke spat.

"Ano……arigatou gozaimasu!" The boy quickly ran away.

"_Arigatou gozaimasu! That's how you say it in Japanese, I think!" _

Naruto hadn't run away from him.

_Don't worry, from the way you act, he probably will sooner or later. _his inner voice cackled evilly, bouncing from one side of his mind to the other.

_**Keep your stupid comments to yourself.**_

_I'm saying you better polish up your communication skills._

_**Speak for yourself!**_

_But I am! I'm you and you're me!!_

_**I do not share a body with a fucker like yo--**_

"Sasuke! You stupid idiot! What sort of bastard goes around ripping a splinter that fucking huge outta his hand?? Did you swallow the wrong pills this morning or what???"

Sasuke only smirked in return. "What pills were there to take?"

"You idiot! I told you not to run away but that didn't mean spilling your blood all over the floor! Your clothes are going to be covered with blood stains and washing out stains is a bitch!" Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hand and wiped away the blood with an alcohol pad while continuously lecturing him.

"Even I'm not this stupid! And you call me a moron!"

"Be gentler. You're going to rub my skin off." Sasuke muttered, sucking in a breath at the pain.

"Augh! Why do I even bother with you?" The blonde angrily dug through the box for a pair of tweezers, coming up with a rather lethal looking thing with two metal antennae.

_He's going to use that **thing**??_

"Think of something happy!" Grinning widely, Naruto ordered Sasuke to do as he was told. The dark-haired man said nothing and merely racked his brain for some cheerful memory that wouldn't morph into a nightmare on contact.

Of course, Sasuke hadn't thought of anything happy. With every splinter Naruto pulled out, Sasuke would curse and try to jerk his hand away, demanding that the blonde mind his own business. By the time the splinters had made a nice pile on the floor next to the them, both boys were frustrated and wanted to knock the other one out cold. Sasuke could tell Naruto's aura was dangerously violent by the way he was strangling the wounded hand with tight bandages.

"Naruto?"

"What." It was more of a demand than a question.

"Nothing."

"If you don't have anything to say, then don't ask about it!"

Naruto whacked the back of Sasuke's head angrily as he threw the medical supplies back into the box. The Uchiha slapped him back on reflex. Spinning around, the blonde grabbed Sasuke by the shoulders and punched him across the face in return.

"Do you have a death wish, blondie?" The look stamped onto Sasuke's face was filled with hatred.

"Like to see you try, bastard! You couldn't beat me up in a million years!" To prove his point, Naruto sent Sasuke flying into the wall.

Quickly regaining his posture, the previously beaten leapt up from his position on the floor and lunged at Naruto, sending them both crashing to the floor. The two scuffled for a while, fighting to have the advantage on top. Naruto tasted blood in his mouth, cursing silently as he realized Sasuke had split his lip. Damn. Throwing a blind punch, the blonde hit his target dead-on, straight in the middle of the face. Sasuke slammed into the floor.

"Who's got the death wish now?" Naruto's breath came in harsh pants. He hadn't fought anyone like this for a while. Wiping the blood from his lip with the back of his hand, the blonde stared at Sasuke, unmoving on the floor.

He knew it was coming.

"You."

Sasuke knocked Naruto to the ground, straddling his chest and giving Naruto the worst knuckle sandwich he had ever received. His head suddenly felt like it was spinning around in circles and his eyes couldn't focus anymore. He couldn't see anything more than the blur of another fist heading straight for the other side of his face. Closing his fist around the nearest object his twitching fingers could grasp, Naruto crushed something right beneath Sasuke's right ear. It had to hurt like shit. The jugular vein ran right through there.

"Fuck! Are you trying to kill me?" Sasuke yelled, holding his neck and trying to sit up. He had fallen off in a weird position on his side, making it difficult get up without twisting something around.

"I'm just using self defense!"

"Excuses." Groaning, Sasuke sat up, still nursing his new injury.

"It's your fault! Not mine!" Naruto yelled, trying to bring his leg up in a kick. Sadly, he failed because Sasuke slapped his hip downwards and pulled his legs right out from under him. He sat down painfully on his ass so he was eye to eye with Sasuke. "What're you trying to do!?"

"Talk."

"About what? You make me feel like a broom got stuck up my ass and then tell me to talk!? Are you outta your damn mind!?" Naruto threw another punch that Sasuke easily blocked with the palm of his hand.

"Just talk. About anything." Sasuke eyed the blonde wearily, pushing the fist back to its owner.

Naruto thought for a while before letting his face light up. "There was this really cute girl in the mess hall! She was serving up all the food and she was really pretty! Her name's Sakura! I should bring her here sometime! She's your type, I think!"

"My type?" The Uchiha cocked an eyebrow. _Really?_

"Yea! She's pretty and she's really nice! Sakura will…complete you, in a way!" Naruto's fingers formed a square and focused, closing one eye and sticking out his tongue.

"Complete whom?"

"You! Who else?"

There was a minute of pregnant silence hanging in the air above them. Sasuke shifted slightly on the floor, returning to his photo puzzle, leaving Naruto wondering if he had said something wrong. Fiddling with his thumbs, the blonde bit his lip, glancing up at the other boy occasionally. He was waiting for him to explode suddenly, as Sasuke so often did.

Nothing happened.

Naruto's radio crackled and he unhooked it from his belt to hold it up to his ear. All the while, he kept his gaze on Sasuke's back, waiting for the dark-haired man to say something.

More crackling came from the technology before an audible voice was heard. "This is Kiba. Where are you? Your guard shift begins in two minutes."

"Be right there."

"If you're not, I'll guarantee that I'll steal Chouji's chips and blame the loss on you. Then you'll be fucked." Kiba warned, his voice coming out broken through the crappy connection. He was still pissed over the whole situation last night when the chip-devouring man wouldn't shut up long enough for him to fall asleep. "Over and out."

Sasuke didn't even notice when Naruto left. He was too busy acknowledging the fact the watch he had thrown onto the floor was the weapon that had been used to brutally attack his neck. And that wasn't all that had happened to the watch.

It had stopped ticking.

_No one's going to jump me for a dead watch. _Sasuke sighed, not knowing whether be upset or relieved over his cracked Rolex.

Naruto had left the door open again. Not bothering to get up and close it, Sasuke glanced outside to see if anything exciting what going on. There wasn't. His newly landscaped front yard was nothing more than tarred dirt and thick wire fences, complete with electric circuits no doubt.

"I hate this place." Sasuke muttered, glaring hard at the fence.

He absently wished that it would just disappear the next time he blinked. Moving so he was out of the light, he rooted around in his duffel bag for a plastic baggie. When he found one, he blew the dust out of it first before looking upon the photo, sighing and scooping the remains into the bag. Obsidian eyes regarded the dead watch on the floor for moment before dropping it in the bag with the photo. These were all things he couldn't fix. Sasuke wearily shoved it in with the rest of his belongings, leaving it to be forgotten.

Lifting his head to look at the sunlight streaming through the cracks in the ceiling, he let out a deep breath of air. His mind unintentionally flashed to a picture of the wired fence.

"I want to get out of here."

**

* * *

**"Explain to me why I have to sit here for another two hours again." Kiba grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and propping his feet up on the windowsill. Annoyed, Naruto pushed the muddy boots away from his face. 

"Because it's what I want. And you don't have anything else to do anyways." the blonde replied.

"It's so boring!" the brunette continued to whine, running a hand through his messy hair. He hadn't gotten the chance to comb it this morning since his comb had mysteriously gone missing. Now the strands were knotted, tangled to the point when his fingers would get caught and wouldn't get loose until he ripped out a good chunk of hair from his scalp.

Naruto muttered something under his breath and scooted away from the stinky boots, which seemed to have some sort of attraction to his face.

"What was that? I didn't hear yooooooou." Cupping a hand around his ear, Kiba sang, leaning nearer to Naruto, who jabbed at his cheek with the butt of his gun in response.

Continuously poking his friend's face, Naruto hoped that the meaning of personal space would get across soon. Cupping his chin in one hand and staring at Kiba like he was the stupidest person on the face of the Earth, the blonde repeated his question. "I said, whose fault is that?"

"Oh." Kiba leaned back in his chair, moving his feet so his right foot was up against the wall. He pondered the question for a moment before slapping on a smart expression to counter Naruto's current state of gloomy boredom. "For one, it's the Japs but we're Japanese, so it's not that. It could be the military but we're in that too so that's out of the question. That kind of leaves only one option."

"Do I want to know?" Blue eyes considered Kiba suspiciously.

The dog-boy grinned. "You."

"Fuck you." came Naruto's immediate reply.

"That hurt. An arrow pierced right through my heart." Kiba pretended to swoon, slapping a hand to his forehead while falling so hard back on his chair that it tipped over and sent him tumbling to the floor. "Shit!"

Naruto lazily lifted his head to look at his pained friend. A small smile graced the boy's lips and he look like he was going to laugh for moment. Then his head promptly dropped back into the crook of his arm. Kiba muttered something about the chair being stupid under his breath, kicking the wooden object back upright. It groaned in protest as he angrily sat down on it again.

"Fuuuu…"

Blinking, Kiba glanced at the blonde, wondering if the noise was coming from him. It sounded awfully like crying. The brunette could only hope it wasn't. He wasn't good with comforting people in their times of tragedy.

"Fuuu…fuuu…fuuuuuuuuuu!"

"Naruto? Are you okay?" The worried boy had the heart to ask at least this. If Naruto wasn't okay, he'd just leave as quickly as possible. If Naruto was, then all would be fine.

"…stomach…hurts…"

"Huh? Your stomach hurts? Must've been the oatmeal this morning." Another realization dawned on Kiba and his face changed to a green colour. "If you're going to puke, please throw up out of the window. If I have to smell it for the rest of my time here, I'm going to kill myself."

Naruto lifted his head up and his face split into a trembling smile. He cracked up. "Oh my God! Kiba…you moron…oh my God…an arrow pierced right through my heart…what sort of stupid line is that…! And then tipping over in your chair, no less! Oh my God…this one's for the books!"

"It wasn't that funny." Kiba pouted, glaring hard at Naruto, as the blonde continued to roll with laughter, trying futilely to muffle his mirth with his hand.

"You're such a bitch sometimes, Naruto."

"…my stomach …did you get that from 'Romeo and Juliet', or what? You're classic……entertainment." Naruto was trying to talk through his uncontrollable laughter, clutching his ribs.

"It was actually from a comic book, thank you very much." Kiba huffed, turning his nose up in the air.

A sudden gunshot jolted them both from their seats.

* * *

Author's Note: A weak attempt of humour at the end. What can I say? It was two in the morning and I was...just about to give up on this story because no one seems to like it...but I didn't. Be proud of me...not for my humour, for my perserverance.

Reviews make an unmovtivated person like me motivated. ::puppy eyes:: So please review!


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